Seriously. I need to know. Almost everything I’ve sent there over the last few months has arrived either damaged, massively late, or most importantly, not at all. It’s moved beyond a coincidental fluke to something substantially wrong with the system.

About 15% of my ebay business goes overseas. Anyone who’s read my posts here knows I think it’s good for business to sell anywhere, anytime. However, I am seriously considering outright banning Canada for a while. I had a perfect holiday season everywhere else in the world (even Italy and Mexico!), but about 7-8 packages just never arrived to Canada, leading to constant refunds and several negative feedbacks, even though I did all I could to help the buyers. I’ve been shipping from three different post office locations, so it’s not like someone in “the back” is stealing my Canadian packages, which is a pretty paranoid way of thinking anyway.

This week alone, I received two negs from western Canada for non-receipt. I first asked for patience, that mail to Canada has been slow recently (especially during the holidays), and they act like I called their sisters a bunch of sloppy whores. God forbid you insult the infallible Canada Post! Both buyers actually refused refunds and apologies for the inconveniences because I said the fault lies with their countries’ mail delivery service. They’d rather neg and get nothing (if you think a refund offer is still on the table after a neg, you’re nuts).

An email: “Do NOT say it takes long because it’s international. I’ve sent and received stuff to/from US – it NEVER takes a month – it arrives within a week if not 2. Even items from Asia don’t take a month. It wasn’t even holiday season back when I purchased it.”

Ignoring the fact he considers the second week of December to not be part of the holiday season, it’s a dumb email. Even the packages that do make it into the buyer’s hands take no less than 10-14 days. This is not just my experience; other sellers I know experience the same results. Three to four weeks is in no way unusual, but according to this buyer, it’s never happened in the history of Canada. Thanks anyway, guy with 60 feedback!

Later, his neg: “Item NEVER received. Blames on the postal service. Irresponsible. Do NOT trust.”

Really now, what more can I possibly do once I drop the package off at the PO? Of course I’m blaming the Canadian post office. The address is written 100% legibly and the customs form is always on the front or top and is filled out correctly. If there’s no item 30-35 days after the mailing date, I’ll send a refund. Wow, that’s pretty irresponsible. (I realize I’m being snarky now, but my emails are actually professional to the buyers until the transaction has officially been ruined, so don’t think my ‘tude is causing the bad feedback)

So, I have three choices right now (aside from doing nothing and hoping it’s all a giant, expensive fluke):

1) Continue to ship to Canada, jack up shipping ~30%, and give a refund at the earliest possible moment to any Canadian who complains, even if it’s hours later. I will not speak ill of Canada Post because Canada Post is perfect and asking for patience will only make the buyer angry, and I won’t like him when he’s angry.

2) Continue to ship to Canada, jack up shipping to Priority/Express Mail costs. This is a HUGE price increase, since I mostly sell items that are under a pound, meaning the shipping price will likely more than double. Unless it fits in a Flat Rate envelope/box (less than half do, since I sell a lot of 5950 hats which go in a custom box), this’ll cost, bare minimum (no handling fees), $21. Not appealing when most items I sell go for about $10-20. I’ll have a tracking number, which is good, but Priority items to Canada have gone missing before.

3) Ban Canada outright from future sales. Will definitely hurt business, but will have a nice catharsis effect. Will probably lead to a giant flashing text box in all listings taunting Canada while thanking them for all the negs, which will probably hurt business more.

I’m leaning towards #1, but 2 or 3 might happen too. A colleague mentioned a variation of #2, in which anyone outside of the province of Ontario MUST pay for Priority shipping, since that’s where a majority of the non-receipt problems come from. Not a bad idea, but there’s no way to officially discriminate against Canadian provinces in your ebay listing, and packages still go missing to Ontario.

Comments, suggestions, similar horror stories to share?

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Hey, you are dead on regarding the Canadian Snail Service. I am a Canadian eBay seller. To suggest that Canada Post is slow, is to insult the word “Slow”. I mailed an item a couple of months ago from Stouffville, Ontario, to Hanover, Ontario. The buyer emailed me after 6 days to ask if I had shipped it. I assured him that I had and pointed to the notification he received from Canada Post when it was sent at the Post Office. He finally received his item AFTER NINE DAYS!! (He left me great feedback but put “Canada Post Sucks” in the text.) International air parcels that should arrive in 6-10 days, often take 21 to 28 days to arrive. How the heck can Canada Post cause a delay on International shipments??? The only thing I can see is that they somehow take several days to get it to a place where it’s going to end up on a plane. Nothing else would make sense. No wonder so many US Sellers won’t sell to Canadians unless we agree to pay for Priority Shipping (when First Class would do at a fraction of the price) or even insist on using only UPS or FedEx. (Which costs us outrageous “brokerage” fees when the package is delivered.) They’ve probably been screwed so many times with parcels taking forever to get to the buyer and/or arriving damaged that this is the only way they feel they can “cover their ass”.

Canadian Buyers AND Sellers are getting screwed with this. In part, this is what happens when you partially “privatize” a government service and have a bunch of minimum-wage private contractors delivering your mail.

It seems that Canada Post receives international packages (quickly I should add) and then posts that canada customs has them. When you call the customer service number they tell you the same thing, Canada Customs has your item and there must be a reason they have pulled it off the conveyer and are checking it. This is a total fabrication! There is an enormous hanger that is full of deliveries in the hands of the post office. There is a conveyer belt that items are put on and pass through the hands of customs officers. If customs has an issue they will call the recipient. They don’t have an army of staff checking up on the origins of that patent leather handbag or used banjo and all they want is for the legitimate mail to be processed, taxes charged and any illegal material discovered. Why does the post office lie to its customers? If they are short staffed and inefficient, own up to it rather than making up some lame story. I have had a simple e-bay purchase sitting in Mississauga since the beginning of last week and its thursday of the following week. It is 30 minutes away from my home. Imagine if you are sending things that are fragile and what can happen to them in an environment like this where backlogs are piling up. It is crazy and beyond comprehension. Years ago they could have told us when we called that the parcel was in transit somewhere else and that there was a backlog at some mail hub in Tomah, Wisconsin. Now of course scanning reveals the location of everything shipped and the customer has instant access to them. WHY? WHY? WHY?
It’s not like we’re going to ship things by Canada Posts Courier service after our experience with this. The problem is that they are way more efficient at getting regular mail to the delivery city than they want us to know. It is like they have to pretend that regular international shipping is like the dinosaur, large lumbering and dead slow. On the other hand maybe Fedex, Purolator and the other courier companies just pay off a bunch of senior post office officials to make themselves look good…. I love a good conspiracy theory. There is lots of them running rampant and why not, there is no one you can talk to at the post office that actually knows what the hell is going on and tells the truth.

I am sorry to say that Canada post is the worst,brought a Wilton pan from a seller on ebay 4mth’s ago,has never turned up,i am in New zealand but i get parcel’s from the State’s within 7 day’s,sometimetime’s 2 to 3 week’s,but never month’s,it’s been an on going process with the seller to send anything,being accused of receiving and wanting a refund,i just want my bloody pan,i have been a buyer on ebay for 4 yrs with an excellent 100% feedback score,why would i lie.Why aren’t people doing something about the Canadian post slow as a snail or not at all Canadian system.Demand they investigate,will never buy from anybody selling from Canada again,which is a shame,because it’s not the seller’s fault and they miss out. But for goodness sake,CONFRONT CANADIAN POST Andrea Taylor New Zealand

It’s true. Canada Post is utterly ridiculous. I’ve had a letter take a month to get from Calgary to Vancouver. It showed up, the postal mark showed that it had been sent on time. There was no explanation, no other markings on it and it didn’t even look the worse for wear. I thought it would look like it had been around the world on horseback. Tracking is also unreliable. I sent a package on Dec 12th and the Canada Post tracking tool shows Dec 14 accepted at the USSFOA as the last entry. If I plug my tracking number into USPS I get a further update on Dec 16th and Dec 17th. WHY doesn’t Canada Post have that info? Today is the 18th, so if they’re a little behind getting the tracking info into their system, fine, but 2 days late?? Yesterday was the first time it occurred to me to try and use my tracking number on the USPS site. I didn’t realize that would work. So, I’m happy with that option.

You know what makes me laugh? I’ve lived in a rural area in the states and I remember visiting my aunts and uncles who lived in rural areas as well. USPS has ‘posties’ who drive beat up little cars in some of those areas, wear jeans and/or sweats, sit in the passenger seat of their cars and have the steering wheel rigged up with some sort of pole so that they can steer from the passenger side. I mean, if that doesn’t look like a Mickey Mouse setup, I don’t know what does! LOL. But hey, the mail is ON TIME. WTF? Come ON Canada. Really???

I don’t use this website. I’d like to say thank you to whoever the author of this subject is. I never had a problem with other people, especially when I get mad at a U.S. Shipping label, I dont fucking blame the whole country. Everybody needs to learn how to talk, do you think straight up telling someone “their own post office is screwing up” will go out good; Cause if you do I’d like to give you something that I think would go over well since it works like that up in your head. U.S. is slower, Did that not sound offensive? Educate yourself before you intend to offend everyone; You won’t seem so idk “Tyrant’ish?”. Idk I always taught myself to do so… before hand, then when I offend people theres always a possibility they can figure out I was right… Cause. It. Makes. Logical. Sense. Be more patient please, unless you want to come across like your blaming all canadian’s for your problem, which I understand is Important. I did not know you would get post to work if you blamed the people who are doing it…(Sarcasm) Have a good one guys.

I did a search on yahoo for “what is wrong with canada post” and came up with this feed. It has nothing to do with Ebay but I live in Louisiana and I have a Canadian Credit Card that I pay monthly. Last year it started taking 2-4 weeks for a simple letter size envelope to reach Toronto. I have had to resort to wiring or UPSing a bunch of checks to my sister to pay my bill for me. It’s rediculous. We even used priority global to send my sister the last set of checks and its supposed to take 5-10 days and it’s been well over 2 weeks now and she’d never recieved it and I had to spend $40 to wire my payment. I am Canadian…. and the Canadian Postal services bites the big one.

I’m finding there is more to this than meets the eye. I (my wife actually) ordered a bunch of things from a seller in China. I waited. And waited. Finally I got an email from ebay telling me that I only had 4 days left to file a dispute on the purchase so, I opened a claim. Which escalated to a claim. The seller supplied me with a tracking number which actually worked and told me that the package was in Vancouver “being reviewed by Customs”. It was another 4 weeks before it showed up at my door.

Now, the seller was partially at fault as they screwed around for almost three weeks trying to ship the package with too little postage on it, adding a bit more and trying again until it finally started on it’s way. (There were FIVE separate postage tapes on the package when it arrived.)

The package that was supposedly “being reviewed by Customs” was NOT opened for inspection. It’s always clear when they do it. It’s taped up and there is a sticker attached saying it was inspected by Customs. So… WHY did it take 4 weeks to get to me from Vancouver?? I’m not buying it that the delay was caused by Customs. I suspect it was just convenient to blame Customs.

Canada Post needs a major overhaul. Ebay and Online selling in general is probably one of the main sources of income for them and they treat us like this?

If you have a apy pal a/c,you can send money to there email address,go into your a/c,click tab that say’s Send Money,and put there email address,easier than wiring money or sending a check.Andrea taylor

so true, it takes forever for stuff to get to me and shipping is so expensive even shipping within canada. i’ve had stuff shipped to a friend in the states and they got it right away. something seriuosly needs to be done anout canada post.

Cost with Canada Post is something I’ll never figure out. If I ship FROM Canada to an international destination, I have the “small packet” option. Not only is it cheap, it’s INSURED for the price charges. (Something you can’t get with USPS small packet, or with small packet from most countries in the world.)
My place to Vancouver – 1kg: Regular parcel 7 days – NO insurance – $14.30 (add $1.30 for $100 insurance)
My place to Vancouver – 1kg : Xpresspost 3 day incl. $100 insurance $24.40
My place to Los Angeles – 1kg – small packet surface 7-10 days – INCLUDES $100 insurance: $12.40
My place to L.A. – 1kg – small packet air 6-10 days – $100 insured: $15.36
My place to L.A. – 1kg – Expedited parcel USA 4 days – $100 insured: $20:12
So essentially $4 MORE – for the same service (3 vs 4 day) to send the same size and weight of parcel 4,400 KM WITHIN Canada, than 4,100 KM “International” to L.A. in the US. I just don’t “get” it. And to add insult to injury, I’d have to add 13% Tax to the $24.40 parcel to Vancouver for a total of $27.57. No tax on the $20.12 parcel to the US.
This is insanity.

You are correct in your complaints about Canada Post. Magazine especially are always at least a month late if they originate in the U.S or Europe. I have been told by a mail carrier that magazines are hels as low priority when they are short staffed. Postal officials will blame customs. Right now I am waiting for some magazines that were mailed April 18,2011, first classs international with a customs form. My question is who is more hated Air Canada or Canada Post ?

there has been ongoing issues with Canada post, but Never had I had a package go missing when sending worldwide. That is an anomoly for you.

The recent big strike has reorganized some things. example : usually shipping to the USA takes about 7 business days for lets say a 12″x12″x2″ package. Now I shipped and it took 4 days. Same goes for a big package too. Something has changed since the strike. I have a feeling there were some dodgy employees and systems that have held things up but I hope things are better now. The problem for Canadians is the fact some of the prices to ship are 20% more than other countries. we get gouged and it turns off some customers undoubtably. So on both sides it sucks a bit. But like I said, i have never had a package go missing or damaged when sent. I have to say too, that when ordering from the USA it usually takes about 3 weeks to get an item. It gets stuck at the border politics, nothing to do with either post office !

It’s not an anomaly. Read blogs, ebay message boards, and talk to other seller friends. This is very common. I hope you’re right about the strike making things better. I actually haven’t had any problems with Canada in recent months, so maybe they’ve turned the corner. I want them to be as good as the USPS because I ship so much there.

Yes the Canadian postal system sucks at times and yes it will be going bankrupt in the not to distant future if it doesn’t it’s crap in order but the long delays at the border are the terrible customs agents that wreak of Napoleon syndrome. Little men that can’t be tall and so they take it out on anyone they can because they are just miserable people. If you try to be congenial with them to get an amicable resolution they still try to give you a power trip. There is no other word for it but retarded. They are men that couldn’t be police and think that it is a Step up from security guard but the general public respect a security guard a million times greater than border or customs agents because of the way that the public gets treated by them.

Hi,please help,i am in New Zealand and brought a Wilton cake pan from a seller in Canada 6 week’s ago,the parcel has still not arrived and when i emailed him,he told me to be patient,i will never buy from a seller in Canada again,how long should i expect to wait?and this was a full bodied Minnie Mouse pan that cost me all up with postage $134.00NZ,not cheap.Regard’s Andrea

I bought an item on eBay and the seller made a single character typo in the street name (Center / Canter). Everything else, including the postal code, was correct. Canada Post returned it to sender, no such address!

Given the incompetence of Canada Post, it’s not surprising that so many international sellers refuse to ship to Canada.

I also like how you get tracking information that states “order created and received by Canada Post” and then nothing shows up afterwards. It’s been 6 days now and I actually have nooooo idea where the item is in transit. Well, wish me luck!!!😛

I have had the same problems about packages taking for ever or not getting there at all. It is at the point I can’t afford to sell to Canada any more. I have had to double ship or refund enough where I am just braking even.

I’ve commented above about this. BUT, Canada isn’t the only one I’ve had trouble with as a seller. I’ve shipped product all around the world, including to China and most of Europe, Japan, etc. The only country I’ve ever had a parcel go missing to, has been Australia. Not once, but three separate times. Different buyers. Different areas of Australia. I’m at a loss to explain why. But I have to admit, Canada post IS slow processing parcels.

Strange. Some parcels have taken forever to arrive to Australia (and damn if it isn’t ungodly expensive to ship there), but they’ve always arrived. Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever had something go missing to Australia. I’ve had to deal with some real idiots from there, but never a lost package.

I shipped a parcel to Australia and Canada on the same day. The package to Australia got there in 5 days and the Canada package has already been three weeks and it is still not there. It is also the second time I had to ship that package because the first one has not arrived at all. From now on the ONLY WAY I am shipping to Canada is Priority mail insured at customers cost.

Otto, I used to do the same thing, but I quickly discovered that Priority Mail to Canada isn’t any faster than First Class International. They’ve also lost Priority packages with tracking, so it’s not any safer. Insurance is a good idea, but it’s a major headache trying to collect on it. I now just ship First Class International for lower-cost items (under ~$75) with a huge markup to cover future losses. It’s appalling how bad CanadaPost is.

well – you must be in the US? I’m in Canada – I found this thread simply because of the problems I’ve had with Canada Post living here – getting things sent to me. When you have a tracking number emailed by the shipper (in the same province, so, if you were shipping within your own state of residence) and it doesn’t show up at _all_ on Canada Post Tracking here: http://www.canadapost.ca – well, Houston, we have a problem🙂 As I said to someone else, it is actually easier here (maybe not in the US) for me to just FedEx anything I have to ship – with the rates about the same, it is trackable, service has always been great – and they come to my house to pick the item up. Canada Post has an expected 20 Billion loss projected over the next couple of years – no wonder, given the service. it’s not the employees I blame, the mail deliverers, etc. it’s management. I’ve just always used FedEx to ship things that were of any value, that I wanted to be able to track. The only reason I’m having to deal with this issue at all is because something was shipped to me. I wouldn’t use Canada Post to send anything except for a letter and like that.

Shipping with Canada Post is terrible I built a computer for my brother and sent it with Canada Post, received the computer to find it was smashed to pieces, I filed a claim as I had insurance on the package, it took 2 months to receive the insurance money, and just recently I sent out a game a few days ago and I was charged 14 dollars for regular shipping, with this god awful trust with Canada Post I am weary to send out something expensive with them because they don’t understand what fragile means.

Hey, at least you eventually got the insurance money. It’s damn near impossible to win one of those cases because you need to prove it was damaged in handling, not because of poor packing. CanadaPost will fight you to the death over that.

I just blocked canada for eBay bidders. I wont even capitalize the name. I am sick and tired of shipping two and sometimes three times and the customer still not getting the package. Than I have to refund them anyway. At this moment in time I have actually lost money on my combined canada transactions.

Anyone know an email address of someone in senior management at Canada Post that we can send a link of this thread to?

They HAVE to care at the top. And if they see Canada being penalized for the stupidity of Canada Post, maybe there is something they can do about it.

OTTO: A suggestion – offer selling to Canadians for the time being but ONLY offer shipping by UPS or FedEx. Some WILL complain about the cost but you keep yourself open for options this way.

One of the biggest roadblocks to using UPS is that Canadians get nailed with a $40+ “brokerage” fee when the package arrives. I have seen a good number of US sellers that have worked some deal with UPS where there is a flat $10 fee added to the shipping and it covers all forms, processing etc. When the package arrives, all that is due is the tax. (Which they have to pay at the post office anyway if the package is over $20 value. The $10 is only a little over the $5 or $7 administrative fee they pay at the post office so it’s bearable if they really want the item. And you KNOW it’s going to get there this way.

The extra trouble to ship FedEx or UPS is not worth it. If I did anything, I would offer Express Mail. That is tracked all the way threw the process all over the world just like FedEx or UPS. But it is just not worth the trouble. I don’t need the canadian business at this point. Let them clean their own house.

There is a lot wrong with Canada Post. Here is a website that is dedicated toward documenting the problems small businesses face when using Canada Post for their mailorder or online businesses: http://www.whatswrongwithcanadapost.ca. It is hard to believe but Asian companies can ship small packages to Canadian addresses for far less than Canadian businesses can. There are actual examples of this on the website. How is it possible for Canadian businesses to compete? And how come Canada Post can deliver those Asian packages for so cheap?

I posted a well wrapped, clearly and correctly addressed parcel from Australia to a town in the Calgary foothills over 4 weeks ago. I was told that it would take 3 days to get to Vancouver then I should take a trip to Mars and back while I waited for it to be delivered. Hahaha, I thought. From Aus to Calgary, including one day in Customs in Vancouver, took 21 days. It’s now Day 9 as I wait for it to be transported the 40 odd miles from Calgary to its destination. For almost 40 years I have been posting parcels to relatives all over the world and never have I encountered such slow service. This is the first and last time I use Canada Post. It’s a disgrace.

Huh, just stumbled across this after googling whether Canada Post processes incoming international packages over the weekend (I had assumed no). A lot of this comes as a bit of a surprise to me since I’ve never really experienced any of these issues. Could be because I live in Toronto, the most populous city in the country which is also located about an hour and a half from the US border. There are tonnes of postal outlets and several processing centers within a km or two radius from my house. I’ve never hesitated to order packages from international sellers as they’ve generally always arrived in just under 2 weeks. Packages from the US and the UK are typically about a week or so, with packages from China or Japan only taking slightly longer. Even packages from Italy and France have generally arrived in just over/under 2 weeks from the time I ordered them on Ebay. The only time I’ve ever encountered longer than normal wait times was generally around the Christmas season, where packages took upwards of 3 weeks at times but always arrived just fine. Funny enough packages shipped from within Canada can sometimes tend to take almost the same time as from the US, even if the shipping location is about a couple hours drive away lol. I was wondering why some sellers have charged me retarded amounts for shipping small items from the U.S. I figured it was all just some wasteful American attitude to ship an item the size of a golfball in a huge packing envelope or big empty box and charge me for expedited shipping hahah.

I have found that the size of the city of the package’s destination has no bearing on success of delivery rate. I’ve had packages go missing in downtown Toronto, Vancouver, Quebec City, etc just as often as those going to rural Manitoba. Maybe you’re the exception to the rule, who knows. All of that said, I have had very few problems shipping to Canada in 2012, so maybe they’ve finally worked things out.

Well there were massive complaints and controversies surrounding all of the issues mentioned in this thread around this time last year and years past. Everything from issues with Canada post saying they were under-funded and understaffed, to insider reports that workers were just incredibly lazy, unorganized, and unprofessional at nearly all levels (I’m tempted to believe this latter view). It was nation-wide news on numerous occassions, and I believe they were forced to get their act together. Now that you mention it, service has been very good of late. I received a package the other day from the UK within 4 days. Fastest I’ve ever received an overseas package. Now if only my package from Quebec that I ordered at the same time as the one from the UK would arrive as well!

Well 1-2 weeks sounds about right however I ship to the us a lot and I have same issues snail mail or damaged even with fragile stickers all over the place. You would think the shipping progress between our two countries would be much better unfortunately its not!

I have many packages lost by the Canada Post. They are doing a horrible job but they demand better benefit and salary? Get real! Today I just lost a package that I bought from the state. It says item had been delivered but I never received it. The guy that I was talking to wasn’t even helpful and he sounds very rude. I live in a condo and we have a policy states all packages have to go through concierge which there will be a signature as to who receive it. I asked him who received my package but the guy said there was no signature. I told him if there is no signature then the concierge did not receive it. (I have talked to the concierge to check that too) He kept repeating “the sender did not request for signature” I know that. But there is no way the Canada Post driver delivered the item without the signature of the concierge. In the end he wouldn’t open the investigation for me and he said it’s the sender responsibility, not me. This is ridiculous!It’s Canada Post’s responsibility to lost so many packages!!!!!

I Live in New Zealand and buy just about everything from ebay in the last 4 yrs,the only trouble i have had is buying from Canada,one item took 3 mth’s to arrive,and i ordered an item last December that has still not arrived,i asked the seller to check with Canadian Post and he is apologetic i am still waiting,not his fault,but he tell’s me that the postage rate i paid was for the item to go on a Ship,yep,that’s right,a bloody Ship,i thought we lived in the 21st century,since when do small item’s go on a ship,so this is the problem with parcel’s from Canada,don’t buy unless you expect a long delivery.

I ordered a speaker from canada in february, and it still hasn’t arrived 2 months on, when I go to use the tracking system on canada post, it says it is in transit, it has been stuck on the same spot in transit for over a month now, i’m really worried and really annoyed, since it cost me a lot of money, are people actually recieving there parcels internationally from canada post? mine was shipped… I think I might try and get a refund.

It might actually be too late to start a Paypal chargeback as you only have 45 days. If you’re still able, I would absolutely begin that process. It should never take that long for something to arrive.

Canada post sucks my fucking ass!!! I live in Canada and a proud Canadian but we have the worlds worst post. Take xpress mail they say 2 days I ordered my item Wed expecting Thurs at earliest but Fri on time now they are saying Mon but by then its too late!!! I needed those documents for today!!!!! This isn’t the first time I’m still waiting on a letter via snail mail, they say target 4 days its been 9 and nothing. I get my European mail within 5 days sometimes 8 wtf Canada post?????? They are bitching that they are going broke from all these start ups but they wouldn’t have all these start ups if they weren’t so damn fucking slow.
Those idiots who get bent out of shape aren’t the reflection of most Canadians, most of us feel this way.
Anyhow I gotta go, I have no advice for your except this diatribe and rant.
Good look and best regards.
J

I had something shipped to me Express Post 2 days ago – within the same province – it’s not even showing up as being accepted the post office yet on their tracking.. Canada Post really does suck – if I ever ship anything I’ll use Purolator or FedEx..

I agree – posting to Canada…anywhere in the whole country…or from Canada takes longer than anywhere else in the world by my reckoning.
My son lives in Whistler – BC…an airmail letter from New Zealand took a day less than 5 weeks to arrive.
My friend who lives in Vancouver – BC, sent me in early January, a small parcel for my mid January birthday….it arrived May 15th!
Living in New Zealand, I can send or receive a letter or parcel to England in 3-4 days. 8 days it takes for a letter to arrive in Moscow!
So, just what does Canada Post do???? Is there a holding Depot somewhere….amazing!!!!!

I know it’s hard,but be patient,i have had parcel’s that i thought would never turn up from Canada turn up in 3 mth’s,surprise surprise,but 1 seller i know on ebay now send’s her item’s to a forwarding company in the State’s,and they ship from there,so that might be an alternative for you. But now i will not buy from Canada at all,Good Luck in any case. Andrea

With the past few received items from Canada Post I have noticed one recurring thing. As soon as amazon would notify it has arrived in the local post office, I would go there with a tracking number and get the product on time. HOWEVER, the actual notice I am supposed to receive at my door when the guy comes to drop it off from the office to my house and I would not be at home would arrive a WEEK after that. This means that my package sits at the office for a whole week before they decide to drop it off at my house. Unbelievable.

FWIW, “generally” Canada post is OK. But even now… Walmart Canada has teamed up with them for online sales. I ordered two games and a Keurig coffee maker from them for their anniversary sale back on September 16th. The Games arrived the next day. I STILL DON’T HAVE THE COFFEE MAKER. (It’s now October 3.) Tracking on Canada post still says it’s “in transit”. They told me to register a complaint with Walmart. I did. Over a week ago. Still nothing. Not too impressed with Walmart and even less with CP. It seems obvious to me that some CP worker is enjoying coffee at home made on MY coffee maker. (Speculation but I’d put money on it.)

Update: It took 3 weeks before Canada Post finally told Walmart the parcel was “lost”. I then had to re-order the item from Walmart. (Who was good enough to honour the sale price of the original item and give me a bit of a further discount for the inconvenience. No thanks at all to Canada Post.

I DROPPED OFF AN ITEM AT THE CANADA POST. RAN BACK 15 MINUTES LATER BECAUSE IT TURNED OUT THE BUYER ON E-BAY WAS A SCAM (IT IS THE FIRST TIME I TRIED TO SELL SOMETHING ON EBAY) AND CANADA POST WOULD NOT GIVE ME BACK MY PARCEL THAT I KNOW WAS JUST PLACED IN THE BACK ROOM! IT WAS MY 4000$ WATCH. THEY SAID IT HAS TO BE SHIPPED (I PAID $98 FOR INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING) AND I WOULD HAVE TO CALL IN AND ASK THEM TO RE-ROUTE IT BACK TO ME. WHY NOT JUST CANCEL THE TRANSACTION AND GIVE ME BACK MY PROPERTY!!!

Canada Post is not responsible. I’m expecting a letter mail since 3/10/2014. When I track, it was saying “Item has arrived in Canada and was sent for further processing” When I call, CSRs are lying. They ask me to contact Customs. I called customs and they say Canada post always lies and that they don’t keep mail at customs. Funny thing is it shows that it will be delivered in 3-7 days. Today is 4/03/2014. Now it says “international item has left Canada”. Are you kidding?? This letter should be delivered to me in Canada. I hope they close Canada Post for Good and Kick those useless idiots to curb.

We ship about 100 packages a week to Canada and there is no rhyme or reason to any of it. We have shipped one buyer two packages to the same address and had one deliver two weeks before the second. A package right now shows delivered to a buyer according to tracking, but to a completely different city than the ebay label (printed directly from the ebay sales records) than addressed. I call Canada Post and they told me to file an insurance claim with USPS?!? What, how would I file an insurance claim on a delivered item? First Class items sometimes take 5 days, sometimes 35 days, Priority packages evaporate… The biggest issue I have with them is they give false information out to buyers who are missing packages.
I always just assumed delivering the mail on mooseback, must account for the slow delivery. Glad it’s not just us.

Huge issues with Canada Post! So my item has not arrived yet and I’m one who’s usually very patient.

Except I had a fall out with the company who ships things to me. So my bank tells me I have 30 days to file a dispute and the merchant is telling me to wait a full month before he gives me my money back (if items do not come).

Although, I’m usually very patient, I kind of don’t want to wait the full month because what if my item still does not arrive (its currently in transit with Canada Post) and I don’t get my money back with the bank and the merchant won’t give me my money back – because he didn’t want to give me my money back to begin with?

He kept teasing me even though all I wanted to know was:

1) What the products are
2) How much they cost
3) where the heck are my packages and why they are still in transit with Canada Post

When I first suggested to know what the products are he asked me how much money I want to settle things. The second time I asked him how much the products costs he asked me if 200.00 was fine to settle things. I said it was ok and then he said shame on me, and no LOL. He expects me to wait a full month now and I will not be darned if he says no after the month is over and my packages do not arrive. I also can’t contact them either because he made it clear that I am to leave them a lone. Telling them that Canada Post sucks was also unnecessary information. Which it does in fact suck, ass!

The only reasons why I asked him about the products and costs is because there was a funny transaction back in May that looks suspicious as it wasn’t shown on their invoices etc. He claims I’m the confused one and won’t help me figure out what the transaction was and says I’m not good at keeping my stuff in order which isn’t any of their business. But the real issue is this one package which is STILL IN TRANSIT WITH CANADA POST.

Should I dispute with my bank about this then? The merchant is telling me to wait the full month but I simply don’t trust them after the short tease with the money.

Also Canada Post has signed off one of my packages before, I panicked and freaked out because no one was at home to receive the order. I called Canada Post and they told me they are allowed to sign off packages as delivered when they haven’t yet. But there was also a signature which in fact was not mine. I later found the package sitting around my house and there was a huge thunderstorm the other day in Toronto. Package got nice and wet.

Thank you J! That’s exactly what I thought! Of course there are two sides of each story so I didn’t post the company name here. If you are interested I’ll PM you them who they are so you stay far away from these people also!

Suggestion: Much as people complain about them, use PayPal wherever you can for online purchases. They have their own separate system for dealing with complaints and getting your money back. AND, if you run into problems with PayPal, you can STILL do a chargeback through your own credit card company. (Paypal may cancel your account if you do but, big deal.) It’s another layer of protection for the consumer.

I have a number of replies above on this but I’m at my wits end with both eBay and Canada Post.

I wish there was a way to start up a massive protest against Canada Post’s so called “Delivery Standards” (or mostly lack thereof) for people who live in RURAL areas. After many complaints to CP, I’m now told that their “Rural Delivery Standards” do NOT include parcels (too big to easily fit in the roadside box) OR pretty much anything that requires a signature. Apparently the delivery people are not allowed to get out of their vehicles at the roadside, they won’t go up driveways to deliver parcels… they won’t even honk their horn and wait a minute while I run outside to get the parcels or sign for them. All they do for the most part is leave tags in the mailbox saying “you have a parcel”…

The net result is I have to drive 20 Kilometres round trip into town, to a “Postal Outlet” at a drug store to pick up my parcels or signature required mail. And I can’t just go there when I get the tag. No… sometimes the tag is checked off that I can pick up the item after 6 PM on the day the tag is left but most times, it says I can’t pick it up until after 1 PM TOMORROW. In some cases we are talking about time sensitive registered mail and/or ExpressPost that people have paid premium postage, to send to me.

I’ve tried complaining. (Many times.) The last two times I was promised by a Supervisor at the actual main post office in town, that the driver will honk and wait up to 2 minutes for me to come out before leaving a tag. This lasted all of a week before he stopped honking. Both times. Now… I guess he’s peeved with my complaints so now he frequently doesn’t even put up the flag on the mailbox to tell me there is mail in it. Last Friday, I was outside working in the garden… I could hear the radio in his van when he pulled up to the box so I started heading to the gate. By the time I got there – all of 30 seconds – he had left a tag for a piece of registered mail, and driven off. (He could see me shaking my fist at him while he was putting mail in the neighbours mailbox 300 feet away.)

If this is ‘typical’ of Canadian Postal workers then this country is in BIG trouble and it’s no wonder parcels are going astray… being delivered to wrong addresses (and getting signatures from the wrong recipient), etc. etc.

To top it off, I know many people who live in Toronto – in apartment buildings – and they tell me that not only do they get all their mail delivered to their box in the lobby of the building, but the mail carrier will bring parcels and signature required mail right to their apartment door! (Imagine the time it takes getting into the building, waiting for elevators, walking the halls, etc. delivering individual mail to apartment residents…. but the rural deliverers won’t even honk their blasted horn and wait 2 minutes.

Contrast that to the US where I have a cottage in a rural area in upstate NY. THERE, my mailman – ‘Mike’ – drives up the driveway, knocks at the door, carries the heavy parcels into the cottage for me… He even delivers stamps for me when I need them!! Mike – like most rural delivery people – uses his own vehicle. (So does the idiot in Canada.) Mike went out – and many other US Postal people do as well – and bought a Right Hand Drive Jeep Sahara for his job, to make it that much easier and sit in the vehicle on the side of the road the mail boxes are on. They seem to give a damn. They care about their jobs and their customers.

But… NOT IN CANADA. And before anyone suggests that “they can’t afford to provide that kind of service in Canada”…. take note that a “Forever” stamp, for mailing a standard letter, in the US costs 49 cents. I Canada, a “Permanent” stamp, also valid for mailing a standard letter, now costs 85 cents and even then, only if you buy a ‘coil’ of stamps or a booklet of 10 at the post office. If you just want a single stamp, it’s $1.00. So Canada Post is charging close to double what the US does and doesn’t even deliver much of the mail in rural areas.

Last week, I had to make that trip into town FOUR TIMES because the idiot wouldn’t honk his horn. Walmart Canada is really trying to make inroads into online sales. They ship free in Canada. This is perfect if you live rural and even moreso if you are a senior. (I am.) But not with Canada Post in the mix. I end up having to drive into town to the post office 90% of the time, for Walmart parcels. And guess what? I get to drive right past the Walmart store in town, to get to the Post Office.

What is wrong with this picture???

It’s time someone lit a BIG fire under the butts of senior management at Canada Post. Because their rural service is a joke. And not a funny one either.

.
As for ebay,… ever since they put that “Global Shipping Program” in place, shipping charges to Canada have more than doubled on most items. Many sellers used to ship First Class very economically. Now it’s all premium shipping with the ‘Global Shipping Program’.

Add to that, all the extra taxes Canadians get hit with, because of the “Global Shipping Program”. When parcels are shipped to Canada strictly by USPS, Canada Customs decides whether or not to collect the “tax” on the parcel. We are allowed parcels up to $20 in value without paying taxes. Over that, ‘technically’ we are supposed to get stuck paying the taxes on the entire value of the item. (So technically, a parcel valued at $20.01 is supposed to be taxed at the entire $20.01.) In reality though, Canada Customs generally doesn’t ask for the taxes on parcels unless they are WAY above that $20 limit. In fact, I’ve seen parcels with declared values of $60 or more, go through with no demand for the taxes.

But with that Global Shipping Program of eBay’s, if the item is worth one CENT more than $20 CAD, we are charged taxes on the item right up front when making the payment for the item via PayPal. This applies to every single item valued over $20. Hey, UPS, FedEx and others do the same thing and that’s why many Canadians refuse to buy from sellers that will only ship by UPS or similar couriers.
(The couriers are even worse though as they generally add on anywhere from $20 to $50 in ‘brokerage’ fees.)

Great post, thanks for sharing. It’s truly amazing the difference in service between rural delivery in the US and Canada. I’ve heard stories like yours all too often. I’m not sure what the solution is. Sad as it is, I’m not sure CanadaPost cares about rural service standards because there’s not enough money in it.

My apologies for ranting but I’ve lived here for 18 years and the service has gone right down the drain over that time. When I first moved here, the deliver person would drive in the driveway and either honk the horn or knock on the door for parcels and signed for items. But that’s long gone.

Canada Post relatively recently, tried to get rid of a lot of rural delivery entirely by saying it was too dangerous on some roads, for the letter carriers. Where they got away with it, they went to these “community mailboxes” as replacements. (Visualize 200 mail boxes in a massive stand assembly, sometimes with a gazebo over it. Sometimes not.) Those have a few large compartments in them for somewhat larger parcels but it still ignores the issue of getting signed-for mail.

Considering the postal rates we’re charged, we should be getting some of the best service in the world. And for what it’s worth, with e-mail, Canada Post is losing a LOT of letter mail. I receive all my bills and statements online and make all my payments online. For me, I’d say that I receive two parcels for every ONE legitimate letter in the mailbox. (Separate from a ton of junk mail that they also deliver.)

I believe that the future is online buying – especially for rural residents where it’s NOT a five minute trip to stores with unlimited selection – and that means parcel delivery. Canada Post whines and cries about how much letter mail has dropped in the last 10 years or so, and yet they are too stupid it seems, to realize that delivering parcels is actually their salvation. They can do it as good as couriers and for less money. Instead, they shoot themselves in the foot in rural areas by making it as inconvenient as possible for us.

I’m an American living in Canada and I find your post extremely offensive! I hate to say it but you are acting like an “Ugly American”. I don’t appreciate you slurring Canadians just because they don’t happen to agree with you. I’m a Seller in Canada and I use Canada Post and no one has ever complained about slow delivery or lost packages. I ship all over the world. The only thing I wished you had you done was left your Seller ID so Canadians could make sure they never bought from you.

Jeannie: You should make reference to the post you are commenting on. (Or hit the ‘reply’ affiliated with that message that bothered you.) It looks like you’re replying to my post. And since I’m a born and bred Canadian, my posts are based on personal experiences. I gave up after I started getting complaints about how long it took for some parcels to arrive. (10 days to deliver a ‘local’ parcel that I could have driven to the buyers home in 30 minutes.) I also had several items shipped to Australia go missing but that’s not Canada Posts fault. (And I too shipped all over the world.)

I detailed above about a coffee maker from Walmart going missing and it took Canada Post 3 WEEKS to finally confirm it was missing to Walmart, so they’d ship a replacement.

I live in Victoria BC and ordered and item off of Amazon.ca. The item shipped out of Amazon’s Richmond, BC warehouse (which is only a 2 hour ferry ride away) and was in Victoria the next day. Tracking said it was expected for delivery 1 day after placing the order. Awesome, I thought…… That’s SUPER FAST….. But that day came and went. Now tracking shows my item in…. Wait for it….. CALGARY, ALBERTA!

So it went from Richmond to Victoria….. Then instead of being delivered to me, they somehow shipped it to Calgary. What a joke.

I ordered some used shoes (on eBay) from the US to Canada. The moron seller thought it’d be OK to use an old product box (from a pre-potted flower bulb) made from 1mm thick cardboard as the box to ship it in. Well the box was basically in taters by the time it got into CanadaPost’s hands. What did they do? They put the whole thing in a water-tight zip-lock bag, wrote my address information on it, and included a note saying that this is how they received the package, and that they had bagged it to prevent any possible damage while transporting it the rest of the way to my house. They also included contact information so that I could contact them if I needed assistance in getting a refund due to the poor packaging.

So, there ya go, they don’t always suck; and, in general, suck less then 80% of the eBay sellers (“no I shipped it already, I promise” – package eventually arrives with shipping date 7 days after they say they shipped it. Shitty packaging. Shitty attitudes. Etc.).

i ordered an item off amazon.ca and my item was supossed to com last monday from abbotsford bc to kitchener ontario i am going on the 8th day with no information on tem, no tracking number and no metod on how it was sent

I ordered something on Ebay from Thailand on April 9th, and it shipped from the seller on the 10th. Tracking number entered at Thailand Post says it left Bankok customs/airport on April 16th. It’s now May 20th and still NOTHING. Canada Post online tracking tool shows nothing, even though the parcel would have physically arrived here in Vancouver back on April 10/11. Called them as well as called Canada Border Services, and they are all clueless. Is there a postal strike or natural disaster I’m not aware of?? Or maybe the freight plane went down in the Pacific?

As a Canadian (Quebec) the last 10 or so items I bought from USA when shipped with USPS to Canada Post has not cost a cent of taxes even on a 300$ value package from a store (not a private). I don’t know what is that 20$ cap you are talking about…Thru UPS and FEDEX you are certain to pay brokerage fee AND the taxes…

I am seller on eBay. I am from Malaysia. I am fed up because of Canadian post. I have faced almost 9 cases in last 3 months. Canadian post has stopped providing the tracking facility for registered airmail entering into Canada. Any tracking number that starts with R, you can’t track on Canadian post website. Everything was fine in the past. I am thinking to stop shipping to Canada or use any other expensive shipping service for them. Canadian people will have to pay high shipping charges , I am sure all the international seller will be fed up soon or later. The parcels are keep on missing and we are keep on refunding.

Its customs that fuck people over. I am from canada and i just recently made a purchase from a well known BEAUTY site. I shipped priority (Comes from cali) so not to far from me, I’ve bought from them lots and never had issue until this time. It was purchased july 29th. Its been sitting in customs for FIVE DAYS!!! And the canada post is lazy and will do nothing and will say it can take up to a couple of months to clear customs. MONTHS. FOR MAKEUP BRUSHES AND MAKEUP!!! It should have taken 4-8 days yet its been 13 DAYS and it still had no sign of leaving customs. Like, what do they do there? Just sit on thier ass eating donuts when they should be clearing mail and packages, purposely skrewing with peoples mail, seriously! Why does a package need to be stopped for so long. It makes you wonder. They are very unprofessional and irresponsible. I will never buy online again. I’ve heard horror stories about customs. Seriously, people need to boycott them until they can get doing thier job. Its not hard. If you cant handle your job…. DONT WORK!!

Since 2009 a lot of Registered mail inbound into the USA has been missing or severely delay by several months! It seems they have the pains of a corrupt Third World country now and do not care to fix the problem. If USA was a small country I would stop shipping there just like they do not ship outside of their corrupt Third Wolrdly country that its become. Now I just limit order amouynt shipping to the US to Third World levels and for larger orders I make them pay huge amount via FEDEX. That is all I can do for the US. Used to live in the US but their Registered mail costs shot from $3.50 to almost $20 now in just 15 short years. Greed is bad for all life. USA gets banned. SORRY WE DO NOT SHIP TO THE UNITED STATES!